The first immigrants to Europe arrived thousands of years ago from central Asia. Most pre-contact Europeans lived together in small villages. Because the continent was very crowded, their lives were ruled by strict hierarchies within the family and outside it to control resources. Europe was highly multi-ethnic, and most tribes were ruled by hereditary leaders who commanded the majority “commoners.” These groups were engaged in near constant warfare.

Pre-contact Europeans wore clothing made of natural materials such as animal skin and plant and animal-based textiles. Women wore long dresses and covered their hair, and men wore tunics and leggings. Both men and women liked to wear jewelry made from precious stones and metals as a sign of status. Before contact, Europeans had very poor diets. Most people were farmers and grew wheat and vegetables and raised cows and sheep to eat. They rarely washed themselves, and had many diseases because…

I wanted to share these quick tips with folks who are starting to write or who have trouble writing.

WORD: After my sophomore year of high school I stopped writing by hand and moved on to computer. At school I was raised on Word and it was the only word processor I used for writing.

But form does affect function. For me Word isn’t the best for planning out the writing or using resources for research alongside the writing. I like Word for formatting and free writing though. I also find it useful for imagine manipulation in-text and other things.

SRIVENER: However, Word didn’t cut it for planning out the writing and research part of the process. I thought I would just have live with it but it turns out I wasn’t the only who felt this way.

So some folks got together and made the Scrivener word processor. It has many different features than Word. For example, it allows you to split the screen to see sources right below what you are writing. Even video. It also allows you to break up the writing visually for better planning. I love it. It has helped me get over the stress of big writing projects by helping me break them up into little chunks visually.

Check out the trial version if you want. It’s around $40. The education version is a little cheaper. Note that there is a learning curve for Scrivener, but I think it’s worth it. After a few times using it I felt really comfortable with it.

FREEDOM: But once I sat to write, I would end up surfing the net on whatever thing popped up on my mind and one Wikipedia article led down a rabbit hole into endless Buzzfeed kitten lists, gifs, quizzes etc. So, lacking self-discipline, fortitude, strength or whatever that is called I turned to Freedom.

Freedom is this program that cuts off your internet. You tell it for how much time and it cuts off internet access. It’s great for concentration and writing. It is what allows me to be productive when I start writing.

It isn’t ideal that you have to pay $10 for Freedom (haha get it?) but it has been very useful so I think it was worth it for me. There is also a trial version. If you don’t want to use Freedom though, you can turnoff your wifi network. That should work too…. although it didn’t for me.

Anyway, I’m sure there are more things people do or use to help them write. Some folks even use voice recognition programs like Dragon to dictate their notes to text. That doesn’t work as well for me. Maybe because I need practice. But so far, this trinity of Word, Scrivener and Freedom works really well.

I hope some of these tips are useful Please let me know if if you have any other tips/tricks to write.

P.S. I should have noted that I also drink at least two big cups of coffee every morning. That definitely helps me get started!

We will cover some logistics at the beginning of the meeting, including updates on the website and conference proposal but the bulk of our meeting will be devoted to a talk by Alexis Perrotta, a fourth year PhD student in urban planning at Columbia who will be presenting the draft of a presentation she will be giving at the Urban Affairs Association this coming February. A brief abstract is below:

Access to Everything: Accessibility Metrics Reconsidered from Within the Central City

In transportation planning research, accessibility metrics are primarily used to analyze the reach-ability of specific, formal destinations such as employment centers or hospitals. The social exclusion literature, however, suggests ‘informal’ destinations may be critical to social network development and social inclusion more generally (Cass et al 2005). These may include places of worship, the homes of friends and family, and recreational spaces. Since important destinations can be anywhere, it becomes relevant to learn the ‘accessibility of everywhere’. For more sparsely settled areas, this kind of overall spatial accessibility can be indicated with the conventional measures of vehicle availability and land use. For the transit-dependent living in densely settled cities, accessibility indicators must also include the location, speed, and networked extent of the public transportation system. This paper manipulates a dynamic online mapping application using geographic information systems tools to measure the geographic coverage of public transportation. The metric is applied to a sample of origins in four counties of New York City. The result is a simple summary measure of transit station proximity, and transit network extent and quality (i.e. speed and frequency). An analysis discusses the utility and limitations of the metric for assessing the equity of a transit system’s operational characteristics. This paper raises questions regarding the limits of the study of accessibility in the aggregate, the role of trip purpose in transport planning, and the potential for expanding the use of qualitative methods in transportation research.

We look forward to seeing you next week and continuing our collaborations from last spring. Please feel free to forward this information to other critical scholars who may be interested and do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

I find it really interesting that the protests in Brazil began over a fare hike in public transportation. It seems that the protests have become a way for people to vent their frustrations with a government that has prioritized funding two huge sporting events at the expense of social servies. When will New Yorkers follow the lead of people in São Paulo?

Here is a bit from this article from Vice Magazine:

“During the Brazilian National Free Fare Fight Day in 2012, a mass demonstration against the rising cost of public transportation, the Movement for the Free Pass (MPL) in São Paulo warned that if public transport fares went up, they would bring the city to a halt. Well, the fare went up 0.20 Brazian real (about $0.08) on June 1st of this year, so MLP called for a protest as promised. Since the first protest on June 6th, Sao Paulo’s main streets have played host to numerous violent clashes between police and students. There were three more marches in the weeks that followed.”